Cheap Bridal Flower Arrangements

Don't forget the flowers!

Every little girl dreams about their wedding day. She imagines the prince charming that she will marry, the perfect white wedding dress, the sparkling wedding rings, the brilliantly decorated church, the black stretch limousine that will drive her off into the sunset and subsequent marital bliss...

Ahhh...nothing could be more perfect!

However, one of the most important and often over-looked aspects to a wedding are the flowers. Bridal flowers are also one of the more expensive aspects of a wedding. Flowers are used to decorate the church, the reception hall, and most importantly bouquets of flowers are carried by the bride and the bridesmaids.

Unfortunately, many brides tend to under-estimate the cost of flowers when planning their wedding and the wedding budget. This can be a costly mistake for several reasons; first of all if a bride hasn't properly budgeted enough to cover the cost of fowers then she will have to make a difficult choice of whether to buy cheaper (and probably unwanted) flowers or to cut down the total amount of flowers she can buy. Secondly, if not enough money is budgeted for flowers then monies may have to be taken from another area to cover this added expense. This can add a large amount of unneeded stress on an already over-stressed bride-to-be.

So, what is a girl to do?

A picture of my wedding day...taking our vows.

Go Fake & Make Your Own!

I got married in August of last year and although we opted for a small, backyard ceremony, I still wanted many aspects of a traditional wedding: the white dress, decorated tables, bridesmaids, flower girls, and beautiful flower arrangements. I had 1 maid-of-honor, 1 bridesmaid, 2 junior bridesmaids (my two older daughters), 2 flower girls (my two younger daughters), and myself who all needed bouquets. Not to mention the groom, the best man, the groomsmen, the father-of-the-bride, and the ring-bearer who all needed boutonnieres. Oh, and don't forget the ten tables that needed center-pieces. Being on a very tight budget I was frantic to find a cheap way around things. So, I decided to make my own. Here's how:

Supplies

Most brides decide on a color scheme for their big day. This is obviously the first step when making your own flowers---you need to know what colors you are going to use. My wedding was dark purple and white so these are the colors I looked for when shopping. However, to make things more colorful, I chose several different shades of purple for my bouquets. The list of supplies needed is fairly short.

1. Flowers -- Choose colors that match your wedding. The great bonus of using fake flowers is that you can use any type of flower that you want without having to worry if they are in season or not. Another bonus is that after the ceremony, you will have a wonderful keepsake that will never die, unlike a bouquet of real flowers would. A rule of thumb when buying flowers is when you think you have enough for a bouquet buy a few more because you will always need more! The best place and the cheapest to buy a large amount of flowers is your local Dollar Store.

2. Greenery -- No bouquet or floral centerpiece would be complete without a little bit of green.

3. Craft Wire Cutters -- The stems of fake flowers are primarily composed of a thin piece of wire which will need to be cut to fit into whatever you are trying to make. Scisscors will not work to cut this---trust me, I am speaking from experience. You can usually pick these up at any local craft store for under $5.00

4. Bouquet Holders -- You will need something to arrange your flowers in that can also be carried during the wedding. These are rather inexpensive and again very easy to find online or at any craft store. The great feature of using these is that they are composed of foam so while arranging your flowers, if you don't like how they look or if you put a flower in the wrong spot, simply remove it from the foam and do it again!

5. Decorative Adornments -- A nice finishing touch to any bridal bouquet is to add some ribbons or beads.

It's Time for the Fun Part

Okay, so now that you have all of your supplies, it is time to start arranging your bouquets. This is the fun part---not that I'm discounting how much fun shopping is but this is where you can get creative and create lasting memories of your special day.

You should start by placing flowers in the center of the bouquet and work your way out. The flowers in the center are the focal point of the bouquet and should therefore be some that you truly adore.

For a beginner he easiest way to start assembling your bouquets is to just start putting flowers into the foam holders. Trim the stems to vary the lengths of the flowers and keep playing with them until you create something that is aesthetically pleasing to your eye.

When making the brides bouquet put some longer stemmed flowers near the bottom of the holder so that they hang down in a type of cascade effect.

When making the bridesmaids bouquets, it should be similar to the brides only smaller. Traditionally, they are made with the same types and colors of flowers. However, to make them truly unique go ahead and use different types of flowers and colors. Not only will this make your wedding truly memorable it is a nice gift for your bridesmaids to keep after the wedding.

Don't forget to add your greenery and finish it off by tying some ribbons and beads to the bouquet handle.

I have included pictures of the bouquets, table centerpieces, flower girl basket, and boutonnieres that I made for my wedding. I hope this helps to inspire all those future brides out there!

Examples of Fake Bridal Flower Arrangements

Simple flower arrangement that was made to decorate the entrance of the tent we rented.

Table center-pieces. I bought purple colored vases online and made simple flower arrangements with flowers purchased at the Dollar Store.

This is a photo of my dad, me and my mom. You can see the boutonniere that my dad is holding, my bouquet, and the bouquet that my mom was carrying--which is similar to the others that were made.

Head table center-piece. I bought a foam ring and decorated it with flowers. I simply put a hurricane style candle holder with a candle in the middle of it.

This is my youngest daughter, Kayleigh playing with the flower girl basket that I made for the wedding. The basket was purchased at Wal-Mart and I added the flowers.